Cannabis 101: Ingest Or Inhale

Do you live in a state where recreational cannabis is legal? Are you new to cannabis and unfamiliar with the ways you can extract its medical benefits or are just looking for an enjoyable high?

One of the most important aspects of cannabis you must consider is how you’ll consume. There are two main means of doing so: ingesting or inhaling. You’ve likely heard about brownies or cookies containing cannabis but have you considered vaping or infusing cannabis in salsa dip? Which is better? Should you ingest cannabis or inhale it? To help you decide, here’s a run down of the differences, pros and cons of both methods:

Preparation Needed

There’s no denying that weed vaporizers requires minimal preparation. If you have a basic vape pen or another vape kit, then preparation time is negligible. It’s as simple as adding the wax or concentrate to your kit and vaping away.

Dry herb vaporizers for weed are a bit of a different story since you need to ground your material and sometimes pack it a certain way, also you’ll need to keep a stash and grinder handy for any refills.

If you aim to ingest cannabis, there is a lot more preparation needed. You have to check the legal amount you can prepare. This detail alone differs from state to state.

You also have to take into consideration how you’ll ingest it. Will you add cannabis to regular brownies or will you make some sort of shake or salsa? With each new recipe, you’ll have to reconsider how much preparation you’ll need and what the legal limits are.

Of course you can always just buy pre-made ones for both methods, but that’s not readily available to everyone… at least not yet. 🙂

Impact and Duration of Effect

This is where most people debate about their preferred method of intake.

When a person inhales cannabis, as they would while vaping, the effects take place almost immediately. This is because the chemical compounds interact with the blood as soon as they enter the lungs, which is where they get pumped into the bloodstream. You’ll feel the effect in minutes as the cannabis begins to circulate throughout your system.

The only downside is that the impact isn’t particularly strong and it doesn’t last as long as ingestion. You can expect to feel some relief for a few minutes but it’ll fade in less than an hour or two. Ingesting cannabis is the exact opposite.

The effects don’t occur as soon as a person’s eats. This is because the chemical compounds must go through the digestive system. Ingesting cannabis is a slow process and can take up to two hours before the full effects are felt.

It also means that the chemicals get broken down as they go through the stomach, liver, and kidneys. Not everything gets brought to the bloodstream. When they do, however, the impact is strong and long-lasting.

A common piece of advice is to take it nice and slow. You won’t feel the effects quickly but when you do, they could last for two to three hours depending on how much you eat but can easily go up to five or six hours. You don’t want to eat too many brownies, for example, because when the effects kick in they could become too overwhelming for you to handle and you have no choice but to wait it out.

THC Absorption

If you’re taking cannabis to experience the recreational high, then you also have to consider how the body absorbs Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). As mentioned above, ingesting cannabis means it’ll take longer for you to feel the effect but the impact lasts longer. When inhaling, you feel the effects sooner but they dissipate quickly.

This also applies to THC absorption and this can affect the kind of psychedelic high you’ll experience. One of the main differences is that ingesting cannabis brings the ingredients down to the liver. Vaping leads the chemicals straight to the lungs and blood.

When THCA goes through the liver, it gets converted to 11-hydroxy-THC, which is an active metabolite. This new form of THC is stronger and can break through the blood-brain barrier. When it does, you’ll experience a stronger high.

Vaping cannabis bypasses the liver entirely. There’s no such conversion taking place and this leads to a weaker high. If you’re taking cannabis to gain a psychedelic experience, vaping won’t do much good for you. It will be a more enjoyable experience to bake something with cannabis and ingest it to get a stronger kick.

Calculating Dosage

One major downside to ingesting cannabis is the difficulty in calculating dosage. You can never be 100% sure about how much THC or CBD you’re getting when baking or cooking.

Sure, you could measure a concentrated extract in your recipe but mix it with other ingredients, baking it, and expose it to heat and air could dilute or strengthen the concentration. Every time you alter an ingredient’s form, its chemical composition changes and this could alter how much of its concentration remains in the final product.

You’ll never for sure how much of it gets left in the finished meal.

Inhaling cannabis, on the other hand, is much easier to calculate. Every e-liquid containing a bit of CBD oil or THC have exact measurements. You won’t fiddle with vape juice any further

That said, you can still mix vape juices to get different flavors. However, even when you do, there’s a stronger guarantee that the cannabis concentration is the same even after mixing the e-liquids together. This is because you’re not altering the state of the e-liquid from one form to another as you would when cooking or baking.

At the end of the day, if you want a more accurate dosage then vaping is the answer. Unless you are lucky enough to have pre-measured cbd edibles or thc edibles in a state where it’s legal of course. If you’re comfortable with less accurate dosages but you want a stronger, longer-lasting kick then you can’t go wrong with ingesting.

Ingestion vs Inhalation: Which is Better?

The debate between ingestion and inhalation all depends on your preferences.

If you’re fine with estimating the dosage, longer preparation, and you want a stronger impact then ingestion is the right method. If you want more accurate dosages and you want to feel the effects quickly, then you should focus on using weed vaporizers. Also, take into consideration the impact of THC and how much of a psychedelic experience you want to go through.

Looking for more tips and tricks regarding cannabis? Are you looking for great recipes or vape juice? Feel free to comment below.

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